Please help us continue to provide you with free, quality journalism by turning off your ad blocker on our site.

Thank you for signing in.

If this is your first time registering, please check your inbox for more information about the benefits of your Forbes account and what you can do next!

I agree to receive occasional updates and announcements about Forbes products and services. You may opt out at any time.

I'd like to receive the Forbes Daily Dozen newsletter to get the top 12 headlines every morning.

Forbes takes privacy seriously and is committed to transparency. We will never share your email address with third parties without your permission. By signing in, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Statement.

Lamborghini’s Huracán EVO remains the most accessible and best point of entry for exotic car... [+] ownership. An excellent deal for the money, this diminutive sprinter delivers all the sensations and emotions of daydream desire—free of dread, fear and hassle, any time you want it, delivering acceleration only the luckiest of people ever experience.

Mark Ewing

Plunge the starter button of Huracán EVO and the fantasy bursts to life, no prayer to the Motoring Gods required. Huracán remains the most accessible and best point of entry for exotic car ownership. Unlike the exotica I drove as a young adult, which only honored the promise of design in brief periods of reliability, this diminutive sprinter delivers all the sensations and emotions of daydream desire—free of dread, fear and hassle, any time you want it.

Expertly tailored aerodynamic updates to Filippo Perini’s original sculptural masterpiece, a cockpit... [+] that has all the sensibilities of an Italian Interstellar Luxury Spaceship, and acceleration that only the luckiest of people have ever experienced.

Mark Ewing

EVO’s 640-horsepower Performante V10 is a musical instrument that with a rap or three of the throttle can soar from a deep baritone burble at 2000 to mid-range tenor and on to its mezzo-soprano shriek between 6000 and the 8000-rpm redline. Shift action of the dual-clutch gearbox is so precise and quick that one can compose a personal Sinfonia Esotica with engine and exhaust sounds. Torque peak of 442 lb. ft. is up fairly high at 6500 rpm, but when driven with style the engine is never without urge.

Performante’s 640-horsepower version of the naturally aspirated V10 is one of the finest musical... [+] instruments available. It shrieks at higher revs, splits the air as we used to say. Always fun to war whoop the engine a few times after parking, just to let everyone know you’ve arrived.

Lamborghini

The original Huracán had 610 horsepower and could pass 60 mph in about 3.2 seconds. With Performante power and much more importantly five years of refinement to the scripting that controls gearbox, engine, all-wheel drive and traction control, EVO can do the business in under 3 seconds, time after time all the way to supper. To understand how far we have come, in the middle of the 1970s performance desert, a Countach could hit 60 mph in…6.8 seconds. Twenty-nine years ago I attended the original launch of the Diablo, driving across northern Italy to Lake Garda and back to Sant’Agata, and the factory claimed a 0-100 kph (62 mph) time of just a tick over 4 seconds. The performance renaissance that began in the late 1980s continues. Huracán’s sprinting never fails to impress.

Note full extension of steering column. Combined with lowest seat position and a canted seatback,... [+] tall people can find a comfortable position. People of average height will love it.

Mark Ewing

Adoption of a central “super brain” ECU, dubbed Lamborghini Dinamica Veicolo Integrata (LDVI), helps that performance, integrating the actions of formerly independent sensors, scripting and function in steering, engine, gearbox, all-wheel-drive, traction and stability control, enabling first-time buyers the ability to exploit the power and handling in relative ease. Cornering is improved by adoption of Lamborghini’s rear-wheel steering system first seen on the Aventador S, which sharpens response entering corners. It also facilitates graceful porte-cochère and downtown parking garage maneuvers working in tandem with sensors and cameras, Huracán ably executing tidy J-turns to rival a London cab.

Huracán has a carbon-fiber tub. Suspension is aluminum double-wishbone.

Lamborghini

EVO introduces a touchscreen in the center console waterfall, integrated well enough to almost look like part of the original interior concept. To anyone who has been in a VW Group luxury vehicle in the past few years—Lamborghini, Bugatti, Bentley, Porsche—the logic will prove familiar, though the graphic interface is uniquely Lamborghini. Touchscreens remain a double-edged sword, removing the clutter of many buttons and switches, but adding layers of menus and the juggling act of touch sensitivity. It’s a positive step, even for people like me who think control placement was perfected in the late 1940s and ‘50s. New owners should fire up the engine and invest an hour or more exploring the screen while idling in the drive—much to learn. The balance between shortcuts accomplished by touching the screen or a mechanical button is the challenge of call car companies.

It’s a Lamborghini, so there is sacrifice for the sake of physical presence, but it is not extreme like 30 and 40 years ago. For tall folks like me, a few attempts define best method of entry. Variations on the classic Steve McQueen Method studied by all male actors are entirely possible with a well-timed head feint. The door sill is low, the door itself a conventional design, so a well-executed tumble over the seat’s tall side bolsters does the job. Once you’re settled in, Huracán delivers comfort for a two-hour mountain Dawn Patrol, or a drive from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo for a wine country weekend. For those of average height or less, the car is downright roomy. And pleasure drives are Huracán’s forte.

If you meet someone with a Huracán, don’t be shy. Ask for a ride, or at least to sit in the passenger seat while the engine war whoops to high revs. In my experience the folks who own these understand that the greatest pleasure is in sharing, letting others have a moment of fantasy fulfillment, taking a neighbor for a 10-minute ride they will never forget.

All-wheel drive courtesy of Haldex. Heavy power applied in corners will bring the slightest,... [+] faintest tug in the wheel, letting the driver know power is streaming up front. Those inputs both subtle and outlandish are what make an exotic car worth every penny.

Mark Ewing

In the 1990s, the Alfa dealer in San Francisco horded many of the last cars in his stock, unwrapping a new one every few years so he could remain an Alfisti. One can argue that buying two Huracán EVOs and keeping one in an inflatable climate-controlled plastic bag for later enjoyment might not be a bad idea. If we are heading into a global transition to electric vehicles, and many of us have our doubts, imprinting the sounds of a naturally aspirated V10 to the mind seems imperative. Maybe Sinfonia Huracán should be the sound track of pure-electric hypercars. Huracán is everything Ferrucchio Lamborghini had ever hoped his cars would be more than a half-century ago. You can find YouTubers who have driven Huracáns every day, logging hundreds of thousands of miles through rain, sleet, and even snow.

It’s easy to add $50,000 to $100,000 in personalization and options, but EVO begins at $261,274, a... [+] relative bargain for an exotic carbon-fiber mid-engine supercar with a V10 and a 0-60 mph time under 3 seconds. Options like the front-end lift are mandatory. Most of the other options are a matter of taste and emphasis. Pearl effect paint is a $14,000 option, but the color is phenomenal.

Mark Ewing

“Come on, give me a fastie,” was the cry of my lovely little girl on the way to a Friday night supper at the golf club. Heavy foot applied for a brief moment in our two-minute drive, Huracán EVO jumped in first gear, bringing the most delightful yowls from both engine and child. Parked in a spot where stray balls rarely plonk parked cars, I gave the V10 a series of war whoops worthy of “Exotics on Cannery Row” during Monterey Car Week, which had the little person in smocked dress letting out one big guffaw after another. If an exotic car does not excite small children and teenagers, the designers and engineers have failed miserably. To a little girl with a precocious talent for watercolor, gouache and markers and a mind not yet polluted with corporate branding nonsense, a Huracán EVO in psychedelic Arancio Xanto is one of her wild paintings come to life. Her validation was emphatic: “Oh, daddy. It’s like riding a tiger.”

Alcantara and leather is mixed with carbon-fiber trim. If Lamborghini moves to a “vegan” interior,... [+] we know the world has gone completely mad. Design clearly builds on Lamborghini elements reaching to the Miura. With the windshield reach out far ahead, the deep dashtop and Lamborghini’s unique approach to switchgear, Huracán is truly exotic.

Mark Ewing

Brilliant surface development of the roof panel, which is seen every time the car is approached.

Mark Ewing

Brilliantly sculpted shapes of Filippo Perini's original Huracán. The design was and is completely... [+] fresh, yet it is true to 50 years of Lamborghini design tradition, true to Marcello Gandini's pioneering work.

Mark Ewing

Crackle finish on the engine. Lamborghini does not hide the engine in a non-opening engine bay, or... [+] cover it with plastic architectural panels. You see the beating heart. Italians simply understand the importance.